Research Type: Methodological Studies

The utility of the NILS data can be greatly extended by linkage to health-service related databases which offer a greater frequency of events that are likely to have more HPSS policy relevance. The proposed study aims to test the feasibility and difficulties of linking the NILS dataset to three HPSS-related datasets. The potential benefits of such linkages will be illustrated by undertaking three projects (i) a study of deliberate self-harmers; (ii) a study of the pharmaco-epidemiology of antidepressant usage in Northern Ireland, and (iii) an examination of variations in the uptake of breast and cervical cancer screening in Northern Ireland.

Policy with respect to children and families in the United Kingdom is strongly influenced by the research based assumption that experience of long term and complex needs in childhood is predictive of poor social and economic outcomes in adulthood. In addition, it is assumed that children who are the subject of care proceedings or who have had their names added to the child protection register are likely to come from such families and can provide an understanding of the wider population of children with long term and complex needs. Government wishes to target such families for early intervention and prevention. However, there is currently no dedicated data source for the identification and profiling of families with long term and complex needs. A possible alternative to setting up such a data base is to combine existing data bases in the manner of the NILS.

In societies which do not have universal registration systems for monitoring demographic change it is not normally possible to accurately study the process of linking population and mortality data. The NI-LS is unique within the United Kingdom in that it affords such a possibility. The study links the 2001 Census returns to all deaths registered in Northern Ireland in the five years after the Census, with the characteristics of matched and non-matched death records compared using multivariate logistic regression. The attributes of the subjects included in the analysis are as recorded on the death certificate.